Bulk Collection

Systematic Government Access to Private-Sector Data

Edited by Fred H. Cate and James X. Dempsey

Examines national practices and laws regarding government access to personal information held by private-sector companies

Contains updated reports on government surveillance and data collection in twelve major countries

Describes evolving international law and human rights principles applicable to government surveillance

Explores the principles and practical elements of transparency, accountability, and oversight

Contains recommendations for both governments and industry on how to balance privacy and national security/law enforcement needs

Includes chapters on the impact of encryption on the surveillance debate, and on reform of the international system for mutual legal assistance

An open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence

Bulk Collection

Systematic Government Access to Private-Sector Data

Edited by Fred H. Cate and James X. Dempsey

Description

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

This book is the culmination of nearly six years of research initiated by Fred Cate and Jim Dempsey to examine national practices and laws regarding systematic government access to personal information held by private-sector companies. Leading an effort sponsored by The Privacy Projects, they commissioned a series of country reports, asking national experts to uncover what they could about government demands on telecommunications providers and other private-sector companies to disclose bulk information about their customers. Their initial research found disturbing indications of systematic access in countries around the world. These data collection programs, often undertaken in the name of national security, were cloaked in secrecy and largely immune from oversight, posing serious threats to personal privacy. After the Snowden leaks confirmed these initial findings, the project morphed into something more ambitious: an effort to explore what should be the rules for government access to private-sector data, and how companies should respond to government demands for access.

This book contains twelve updated country reports plus eleven analytic chapters that present descriptive and normative frameworks for assessing national surveillance laws, survey evolving international law and human rights principles applicable to government surveillance, and describe oversight mechanisms. It also explores the concept of accountability and the role of encryption in shaping the surveillance debate. Cate and Dempsey conclude by offering recommendations for both governments and industry.

Bulk Collection

Systematic Government Access to Private-Sector Data

Edited by Fred H. Cate and James X. Dempsey

Author Information

Fred H. Cate is Vice President for Research, Distinguished Professor, and C. Ben Dutton Professor of Law at Indiana University. The author of more than 150 articles and books and a frequent advisor to government and industry on privacy and security issues, he serves as a senior policy advisor to the Centre for Information Policy Leadership at Hunton & Williams LLP and is one of the founding editors of the OUP journal, International Data Privacy Law.

James X. Dempsey is executive director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. Previously, he was at the Center for Democracy & Technology, where he held a number of leadership positions, including Executive Director and head of CDT West. From 2012 toJanuary 2017, he served as a member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent federal agency charged with advising senior policymakers and overseeing US counterterrorism programs. He is coauthor (with David Cole) of Terrorism & the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security.

Ira S. Rubinstein, Senior Fellow,Information Law Institute, New York University School of Law

Sarah St.Vincent, Researcher, Human Rights Watch

Paul M. Schwartz, Jefferson E. Peyser Professor, University of California, Berkeley Law School and Director, Berkeley Center for Law and Technology

Sara Shayan, JD candidate, University of Ottawa

Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Professor, Faculty of Law, and Co-Director, Centre for Commercial Law at the Faculty of Law, Bond University, Australia, and Researcher, Swedish Law & Informatics Research Institute, Stockholm University

Bulk Collection

Systematic Government Access to Private-Sector Data

Edited by Fred H. Cate and James X. Dempsey

Reviews and Awards

"Jim Dempsey and Fred Cate have compiled both a remarkable survey of surveillance practices around the world and a pragmatic framework of accountability and oversight principles that can protect human rights while defending national security." - U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy

"We live in a world where data can help governments fight crime and terrorism, but that same data often resides in the hands of individuals or private companies governed by different national laws. With security, rights, and laws increasingly in conflict, this book couldn't be more timely." - Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer, Microsoft Corporation

"The boundaries of what the State can, but should not do, is one of the most pressing legal, social, and ethical questions of our technology-driven age. If you want to gain a comprehensive insight into the complexities of this debate, this volume represents essential reading." - Giovanni Buttarelli, European Data Protection Supervisor